Hello guys.
Maybe, this will just sound a bit silly and a lack of technical info, its just to know what you think or would do.
Imagine now that you are in the battle of Pavia, riding furiously your fully armored horse with a group of your fellow gendarmes, and suddenly, a bullet kills your riding. You fall and luckily you can get up without much conmotion. So, with your warhammer/ battleaxe/ mace still in hand, your longsword/ broadsword resting in the scabbard and your dagger you are ready to fight when a bunch of enemy mercenary soldiers surrounds you and the gendarmes... the fog of war don´t let me see very far, but you can hear distant hooves... maybe the enemy cavalry...
I was thinking... asking for quarters to the mercs... but i will get a free bullet in my head... fighting with the contundent weapon(Axe/ hammer/ mace)... or unelashing the longsword? (Finally i could get some XVI century woodcuts showing those guys carrying longswords for mounted combat, so i´ll not be bothering around with that thing)
What do you think its the best option? What would you do?

Thanks.

P.D.
This is totally off-topic but if someone knows how those XVI century equestrian belts with scabbards were, please let me know.

Okay, a bullet kills my horse (I assume that is what you meant by "riding"), but I'm still with my fellow gendarmes, and we are surrounded by enemy mercenary soldiers. How many gendarmes are with me and how many landsknechts? What time is it (nighttime or daytime) and which way are we facing (would the sun be in our eyes or in the enemies)? I suppose that the battle is still in its early stages; otherwise, are we demoralized and disheartened by the events of the battle? Have the landsknechts seen us yet, since you mentioned fog? Do we have an strategic advantage that can be deployed against the mercs?

Good point Mr. Blair.
Lets make it easier for our gendarme company, we aren´t facing the midday sun, but it is not behind us or in our enemy´s eyes, lets say, the sun is at our 9 o´clock.
About the number of allies, we aren´t more than 50 knights, we lost sight of our fellow infantry since the enemy mercenaries almost surrounded us, i can´t precise their number but they are hundreds and it seems that they have spotted us. Before this ambush, the French cavalry defeated the enemy Imperial cavalry and forced them to retreat, we were very heartened and followed them but maybe they carried us into somekind of trap. We don´t have any idea where our main heavy cavalry force is. Maybe we can do something to break the landsknechts´ formation and with some luck get our ass out of there.

My first choice in this case would be to gather the gendarmes into a compact formation and charge; it could be all on foot or a first wave by the still-mounted ones opening a way for the second wave of dismounted ones to follow and escape in their wake. The weapon doesn't matter; what counts here is tactics, which includes the factors of formation, cohesion, morale, and aggressiveness. With our complete armor giving us a sense of invulnerabilty, it shouldn't be that difficult to gather the resolve needed for a charge out into freedom. If we do it right the Landsknechts shouldn't even give much resistance, either giving way before contact or immediately after the leading edge of our formation crashes against one side of their encirclement.

As for 16th-century sword belts, I'd say that most would closely resemble their 15th-century predecessors. Are you having difficulties in finding images for this one?

And what about their firearms and the dismounted ones? I don´t know but what if after the charge, the mercs close the hole in their formation or something like that?

Quote:

As for 16th-century sword belts, I'd say that most would closely resemble their 15th-century predecessors. Are you having difficulties in finding images for this one?

Just i don´t know how their swords hanged from their belts while mounted, or Wich is the best position to draw a sword from horseback?
I don´t recognize in the images XVI and XV century ones,